This invention relates to a system for the allocation of equipment in a complex installation such as a telephone exchange.
In a telephone exchange, physical resources have to be allocated to the provision of functionality in support of services to new customers, or new or modified services to existing customers whose requirements have changed. Such services include basic telephony, broad-band connections, for example Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) provision having a specified bandwidth, etc. In a modern installation the resource typically takes the form of a so-called xe2x80x9ccardxe2x80x9d, for example in order to provide the necessary functionality to interface a customer""s connection with a trunk carrier, including any multiplexing, analogue/digital conversion, or other functions, which may be required. The basic arrangement of a typical installation is illustrated in FIG. 4. The equipment is arranged in a modular hierarchy, thereby allowing changes to be made readily. Each card is allocated a xe2x80x9cslotxe2x80x9d 30 in a xe2x80x9cshelfxe2x80x9d 31 which in turn is located on a xe2x80x9crackxe2x80x9d 32, for which floor space must be provided in the exchange 33. Each level in this hierarchy can be configured to accommodate equipment at the next level. Each slot 30 has an electrical or other connection 34 to a distribution frame 35 (generally known as an OFF (optical fibre frame), or DDF (digital distribution frame) according to the nature of the signals they handle) through which connection 36 can be made to an external communications link 37. Each element also has a connection 38 to a power supply 32. The power equipment rack 32 is typically installed with a suite of racks, the shelves and slots being connected up to the power supply 39 as they are fitted.
Although the design philosophies of most systems are modular, not all equipment types are compatible. For example, some equipment is designed to operate with optical fibre technology, and other equipment with electrical signals (e.g. coaxial cable connections). Even within the same technology type, the cards of one manufacturer are not, in general, compatible with the shelves of another.
Records systems exist which record the location and use (e.g. wiring connections) of cards, racks, shelves and floor space and these are consulted and updated as appropriate, as equipment is installed or modified. The planning process for changes in such utilization, including data capture of the changes implemented, are essentially manual, although data storage itself may be electronic.
There are several problems with the existing systems. Firstly, there are often a number of different types of technology available to an equipment planner which are all capable of providing the required service. This can be because of historic reasons, for instance a recent change in supplier, or a deliberate policy of multiple sourcing of equipment in order to reduce vulnerability to supply problems.
In existing systems, it is necessary for the individual carrying out the planning task to select the type of equipment for which space must be found, and this in turn requires that the planner be familiar with all possible solutions to the task he has been given. However, an individual planner may not be experienced in all the possible methods of satisfying the particular requirement with which he is confronted, and may choose a non-optimal solution with which he happens to be familiar. For example, his chosen solution may require installation of new equipment, when some equipment of different design, already installed but currently spare, could have been used to achieve the same objective.
In many situations there are planning rules which have been developed in order to optimize the usage of resources. For example if cards are available providing either 2, 4 or 16 circuits, and the immediate requirement is for 6 circuits, this can be satisfied by providing one 16-circuit card, two 4-circuit cards, three 2-circuit cards, or one 2-circuit card and one 4-circuit card. In general the selection of one of these options will take into account the costs of the individual card types, the availability of individual card types, and the perceived likelihood that the spare capacity in the first two of these options could be taken up at some future date. For example, if rack space is in short supply at the location in question the first option (one 16-circuit card) may be preferred because it only requires one slot, despite the greater complexity, and therefore greater cost, of the card involved, since this will allow provision of a further ten circuits at some future date without using any further rack space.
However the application of such rules, and the use of different technology types, requires that the human planner carrying out the process be familiar with all the possible solutions, and all the planning rules relating to those solutions. In particular, because of the need to minimize the amount of stored equipment to be maintained at individual locations, and to ensure that the technical staff responsible for installation and maintenance of the equipment are familiar with the equipment in their care, the different types of technologies are very often concentrated in different geographical locations. However, this means that the planning effort must also be geographically compartmentalized to allow the planners to be familiar with the technology in use. This makes it difficult to accommodate localized variations in demand for new services.
According to the present invention there is provided an apparatus for allocating equipment of a plurality of types for installation to provide service functionality of predetermined types, each equipment type being suitable for at least one of the service functionality types, and there exists at least one such service functionality for which a plurality of the equipment types are suitable. The apparatus comprises means for storing information relating to the suitability of each equipment type for providing each service functionality type; means for storing information relating to the availability of each equipment type; and means for generating, from the stored information, one or more proposals for installation of equipment to provide required service functionality according to the availability and suitability of each equipment type.
According to another aspect, there is provided a method of allocating equipment of a plurality of types for installation to provide service functionality of predetermined types, each equipment type being suitable for at least one of the service functionality types, and there existing at least one such service functionality for which a plurality of the equipment types are suitable; the method comprising the steps of:
using a suitably programmed computer to store information relating to the suitability of each equipment type for providing each type of service functionality;
using the computer to store information relating to the availability of each equipment type, and
using the computer to retrieve the stored information to generate one or more proposals for installation of equipment to provide required service functionality according to the availability and suitability of each equipment type. As the invention is capable of operating with information relating to a plurality of different technical solutions to a given problem, it is particularly suited to a generic, technology-independent, approach in which information relating to the various technical equipment types can be added or modified without changing the underlying program.
By maintaining the data according to the service functionality to be provided, rather than the equipment type itself, all technical options capable of meeting the functionality requirement can be presented to the planner. The planner can therefore be presented with technical options with which he may not be familiar, either because the equipment with which he is familiar is not available, or because in particular circumstances (e.g. a location where he is not normally involved) the type of equipment already installed differs from that with which he is familiar.
The planner may be presented with more than one proposal, according to a predetermined prioritization process. The planner can override the prioritization process, for example if the proposal requires equipment for which there is a long lead time and the task requires to be met in less time, or vice versa. In such cases the selection of a proposal other than the highest-ranked proposal may be flagged, in order to allow a supervisor to monitor such exceptions.
A further problem with the prior art manual system is that data capture is based on the changes proposed by the planner, but the installation process itself may differ if the installation technician is unable to carry out the installation as planned. This may be, for example, because of non-availability of the proposed card type, or difficulty in installing it as instructed. The technician may improvise in order to provide the functionality required, but unless such variations are reported back to the planning database they will go unrecorded. This, in turn, makes the database inaccurate, making it more likely that future installation tasks cannot proceed as proposed by the planners, for example because a slot recorded as free has been used in an earlier improvisation.
When one of the proposals is selected, it is therefore desirable that the information on the availability of resources is updated to take account of the provisional allocation of those resources to the installation that has now been planned. Instructions to carry out the installation would then be sent to a field technician in order to actually carry it out. In some cases a field technician will find it impractical to carry out the installation in the manner in which the planner has requested it. This may be because of an unexpected unavailability of equipment, or because the existing records are inaccurate. In such circumstances, it is desirable that the field technician can record either that the installation has been performed as planned, so that the provisional allocation can be made fixed, or to record that some alternative manner of carrying out the installation has been performed. Typically such a change might be the insertion of the required card in a slot in the equipment rack other than the slot provisionally allocated to it, because of a malfunctioning connection in the allocated rack. pending its repair, the faulty slot may also be recorded as being out of order, to prevent further proposals being made to use it.
Preferably the apparatus also has a provision for inspecting and retrieving the stored information relating to the current utilization and configuration of the equipment. This allows individual circuits or other system elements in the system to be traced. The apparatus may also comprise means for monitoring the availability of equipment types suitable for a provision of a specified service functionality, thereby providing a facility for forward resource planning, for example, by monitoring the spare capacity of particular resources suitable for providing a specified functionality, thereby assisting planning of procurement, installation of new capacity, or repair of existing faulty capacity. Alerting means may be provided for generating an alert when such availability reaches a predetermined threshold.
The storage means may include means for storing historic data on the availability of resources, in association with means for determining from the historic data the rate at which such resources are being used, for example to predict when availability of a resource type will reach a predetermined value, and allow procurement to be planned accordingly, or to adjust the planning rules to be weighted towards use of alternative resource types capable of performing equivalent functionality. If the historic data indicates that utilization of a particular equipment type at a given location is declining, this may allow its removal, to allow its re-use elsewhere, or to make the resources on which that equipment in turn relies (e.g. space, power supply), available for alternative uses.
The generic design approach allows these functions to be carried out generally, rather than separately for each type of equipment in use.
The invention is preferably embodied as a program running on a general purpose computer.